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Lee Van Roth's Feature Article: Ypsi resident develops app to help delivery drivers share info
Transcription:
Lee Van Roth: You're listening to 89.1 WEMU. I'm Lee Van Roth, and this is On the Ground Ypsi. App-based delivery has become a familiar part of everyday life in Ypsi, but drivers often have little information about the residential locations they're being sent to. Ypsilanti resident Lonnie Brammer has spent the past five years developing Courier Mates, a web-based application designed to help delivery drivers track and share information about delivery locations with other drivers. Today, Lonnie's here to talk about his experience as a delivery driver, how that led to this idea behind Courier Mates and what he hopes the platform can mean for gig delivery workers. Lonnie, thank you so much for being here today!
Lonnie Brammer: Thank you so much for having me! Yeah!
Lee Van Roth: So, you have a pretty extensive background in hospitality, service, service work, but this idea for the Courier Mates platform came from working through the COVID-19 pandemic. Right?
Lonnie Brammer: Oh, for sure. Yeah, I was in the middle of working a couple of different jobs. And when COVID hit, things got really difficult. So, I was looking for some spare work I could do on the side and ran into that.
Lee Van Roth: What about that work, particularly at that time, kind of led to this idea of a platform for gig drivers like yourself to kind of collaborate and share in this way?
Lonnie Brammer: Right. I'd say a lot of that's just my history. I have more than 20 years experience in customer service and hospitality, and I've built a lot of relationships over the years with different individuals. And a lot of the problems are the same, so it was really easy to kind of transition that into something that worked for contractors, instead of just a base business.
Lee Van Roth: And the app itself has been five years in the making. There was a pretty significant amount of time you spent on just the product development itself. Can you give us a little bit of insight into what that process looked like?
Lonnie Brammer: Yeah, it's actually kind of crazy. The way it all kind of stumbled out and turned out, technology advanced a lot over the years. And so, the original cost amount I was looking at was astronomical, especially for somebody working in gig delivery service. It just wasn't feasible. I continued to work with state and local leaders in trying to get enough funds together to put together something. And then, the AI boom hit, and it was suddenly not so hard. I was able to work with some locals in the area that were really good programmers and were able to take care of a lot of stuff a lot faster. And we were able get something together and kind of test it and go from there. And then, once we got that tested and we realized that it was functioning properly, we started to try to push that out.
Lee Van Roth: I mentioned a little bit about what sort of information is being tracked and shared through this service. But can you kind of broaden the scope a little bit. What are the kinds of things that you're hoping folks are putting out on the platform and tracking through Courier Mates?
Lonnie Brammer: Safety first, for one. Safety is a big concern for us. As an individual going to many different residential locations, you really don't know what you're running into until you get there. So, safety is number one. We really want users to use the application, and if something feels off, put it down. We need the information. And that's our biggest. And then, just not wasting time. I want to make sure that the people that are out here doing this work are not wasting their time. They're not going out spending their gas and their money and wear and tear on their vehicle for $5 or $10. It needs to be a reasonable enough amount to get out and go.
Lee Van Roth: And there is an option, there's a subscription option, with the platform, but a lot of these features are available for free--for drivers to use for free. Why was that an important aspect of this to make it as accessible as possible?
Lonnie Brammer: Well, I mean, again, it was the safety aspect. So, we want to make sure that people have access to the information as much as they can. The freemium product is a great memory tool. It's a great way to keep track of your own information and your own locations. And so, if you have any questions about that or trying to remember whether or not you've been there before, it's real quick and easy to log on and take a look at that. And then, our premium subscription is for the community aspect, for the community information sharing. And that is so, hopefully, we're profitable enough to start making a difference in this industry. If we can get enough people to sign up and start using, we can start making some moves of our own.
Lee Van Roth: I appreciate you mentioning the community aspect of this, because there's something in the discussion that we had and something that I've just noticed to knowing other gig workers is the kind of isolatory nature of this work. You're driving around usually alone for however many hours a day. Was searching for community something that you found personally through your work or was that something that was brought up to you through others that were also gig workers?
Lonnie Brammer: Yeah. I think the community aspect was so sporadic in the beginning. It's all just based upon Reddit forums and Facebook groups and things like that. And there is no real core community for gig workers. So, I wanted to try to produce something like that, a place that would allow them to get together and actually talk and figure things out for themselves. And like I said, there's sporadic places that you can go and do that. But with our core base, our core landing base, it's a great way for them to actually share that information, where it makes sense to share it in the local places that they need it, instead of talking to somebody. You're here in Michigan and talking to someone from California about the work. Why not talk to somebody three blocks down the road who knows exactly what it is you've been through?
Lee Van Roth: I know you and Courier Mates as the business is based here in Ypsi, but this is not just a platform for Ypsi gig workers.
Lonnie Brammer: Right. Yeah, we are nationwide.
Lee Van Roth: What is the reception been like so far in since launch?
Lonnie Brammer: Slow. I wouldn't say it skyrocketed right off the bat, that's for sure. I'd say that there is a quite a bit of hesitation in the gig delivery space. There are a lot of companies, a lot of applications, a lot of tools out there that are looking to, unfortunately, scam somebody out of something. And so, this is our honest effort at trying to make this into something better.
Lee Van Roth: This is On the Ground Ypsi on 89.1 WEMU. I'm talking with Lonnie Brammer about Courier Mates and his efforts to build a community around app-based delivery work. So, Lonnie, talking about some of those changes to hopefully make within this sphere of work. Gig driving and things like that have been in the news for some time now as far as appropriate compensation. Safety is another thing, something that you've mentioned that Courier Mates is kind of tackling as well. Are there other maybe larger-scale changes you would like to see, maybe potentially as a result of Courier Mates' existence, or at least, you know, kind of branching off from folks using the service?
Lonnie Brammer: Yeah, absolutely! I would honestly like to see the contractors being treated as contractors instead of employees. Unfortunately, that seems to be the trend. These companies will hire you, which is basically a quick process, but you're not really an employee with that. You're a contractor, and you don't work for any of these specific platforms. You work for yourself, and that comes with some things that are unfortunate, like not having a group of people behind you to help you and not having that team support staff that you're used to having, say, you worked in a restaurant or something like that.
Lee Van Roth: No HR or anything like that either.
Lonnie Brammer: Yeah. Well, I mean, they have their own versions, but, usually, it's been my experience that any HR version you're going to run into with these platforms are just gonna be quick to let you go before solving any issue.
Lee Van Roth: And as you look ahead, as more folks start to use the platform, what does a successful Courier Mates look like to you? Is that greater policy change? Is that just this formation of a greater community of gig drivers? Is it a combination of those? Is it a secret third thing?
Lonnie Brammer: Yeah, I'd say it's a combination of things. For me, personally, what I would like to see in the market is contractors being able to bid on work. I want to see contractors have the ability to put forth what it would cost them to do the work and to make a bid on that work, instead of being treated poorly by an algorithm, honestly.
Lee Van Roth: I'm curious if there's maybe a hope, too, in there that this kind of having this resource available both for drivers and for potentially customers as well, having folks kind of view this service in a little bit of a different way.
Lonnie Brammer: Education is definitely a big thing. Yeah. That's something that I like to push in the social media aspect as well. I am reaching out to gig drivers, obviously. We want people to join the platform, but part of that is educating the public on how these platforms actually operate. These individuals are out doing work for very little money, and they do rely on your tips.
Lee Van Roth: And it is a luxury at the end of the day.
Lonnie Brammer: It is.
Lee Van Roth: And any way we can get some more respect for the folks that are feeding us, day in and day out.
Lonnie Brammer: Yeah, these are your neighbors.
Lee Van Roth: Lonnie, I want to thank you so much for joining me here today and for sharing a little bit more about Courier Mates, the work you're doing within the community and beyond as well. Where can we find Courier Mates?
Lonnie Brammer: Right now, www.couriermatesllc.com. That's C-O-U-R-I-E-R M-A-T-E S L-L-C dot com.
Lee Van Roth: For more on today's conversation and a link to the full article, visit our website at WEMU.org. On the Ground Ypsi is brought to you in partnership with Concentrate Media. I'm Lee Van Roth, and this is your community NPR station, 89.1 WEMU, Ypsilanti.
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